Certain electrical equipment, such as computers, that utilize a backplane or motherboard and have daughterboards that plug into electrical connectors mounted on the motherboard, also require that certain signal or power contacts, hereinafter signal contacts, of one of the connectors be shorted together when disconnecting the daughterboard from that connector. This sometimes allows the reminder of the equipment to continue to operate until the daughterboard is subsequently replaced. This shorting together of the contacts is accomplished by means of a shorting switch element that is either part of the connector or is part of the motherboard. An example of the latter type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,173 which issued Dec. 18, 1979 to Rise, III. The '173 patent discloses a printed circuit board having an array of contact pins extending from a major surface thereof and a receptacle connector that mates with these pins. A pair of shorting switch elements are shown near one end of the array of contact pins secured to the circuit board. Each of the shorting elements includes contacts that engage two adjacent contact pins of the array when the connector is unmated from the board and that are disengaged from the contact pins when the connector is mated. An example of the first type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,362 which issued Dec. 10, 1991 to Martens et al. The '362 patent discloses mating receptacle and plug connector halves wherein the receptacle housing includes a shorting element that shorts together adjacent contacts when the plug is removed from the receptacle and that disengages the contacts when the plug is mated to the receptacle. In this structure, the contact pins of the plug engage portions of the shorting element thereby deflecting it out of shorting engagement with the receptacle contacts when the plug is inserted. A potential problem with this is that the plug contacts that carry the signals are used to engage the shorting element thereby tending to wear and perhaps adversely affect the fragile contacting surface of the signal contact. Similar designs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,259,776 to Giroux and 5,266,043 to Giroux and Mendenhall issued Nov. 9, 1993, and Nov. 30, 1993. Another example of the first type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,557 which issued Jan. 24, 1978 to Ostapovitch. The '557 patent discloses mating plug and receptacle connector halves having a shorting element arranged within the plug housing. The shorting element is attached to the interior of one of the side walls of the plug housing and extends outwardly to engage the connector contacts that are to be shorted. When the receptacle is mated to the plug, a corner edge of the receptacle housing engages the shorting element thereby deflecting it away from the plug contacts. During this mating, the receptacle housing does not actually engage the point of the shorting element that contacts the signal contacts, however, it does come very close to doing so. As the receptacle is mated with the plug, the edge of the receptacle housing engages and then slides along a beam potion of the shorting element and then into engagement with the rounded end of the element that comprises the contact that engages the signal contacts. This tends to wear and eventually damage the delicate surface of the shorting element and, perhaps adversely affect the point of contact between the shorting element and the signal contacts.
What is needed is a shorting element that can be positioned within a connector housing without regard to the walls of the housing and that is deflected out of shorting engagement with the signal contacts without adversely affecting the point of contact of either the shorting element or of the signal contacts themselves. Additionally, the deflection of the shorting element out of shorting engagement with the signal contacts should occur prior to mating of the receptacle and plug signal contacts.